What's Indian in Indiblogger?
Hi,
For little over a year now, I have been writing a blog called Musings from the Margins. I am quite keen on understanding the notion of Indian behind Indiblogger.
Some lead questions, that I hope to explore and create answers from are:
- If it is about location in India (which ethno-geographically is a rather obscure term), then what about the expat Indians living outside India? Or what about the foreigners living in India: for work, travel, on sojourns, as students, migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh or Tibet and Burma: do they qualify to become Indians, in any way? The Tibetans, in fact, have now spent a long time in India, many of them are third generation, and yet carry deep affinity to the notion of Tibet nationhood. Or Pakistanis: I know many dalit Hindus, who have been seasonly migrating to SIndh in Pakistan each drought from the border regions of Rajasthan and Kutch and have been religious persecution. They come to India on an extended tourist visa and choose not to return. Can they become Indian bloggers? Or Indibloggers? There are some who live in transit, illegally? What would such a community mean to them?
- If it is about being in Indian, by blood, how far back does it have to be for me to belong here. If my father migrated to the US, and married an American, do I qualify to be Indian?
- What are the broad notions of Indian identity we carry: is it our linguistic commonality? Maybe not, since there already are quite a few regional/vernacular blogs, and I must say some of them are rather meaningful and substantive. Then is there being part of Indian federalism a sufficient condition for them to 'belong'?
- While English and science technology and personalised blogs predominate, what would this mean for us as a collective? That we are a modern industrialised, technological nation, writing and conversing in English? Do people write with equal felicity in Hindi when discussing Apple iPad? Whose verison would you trust, an English blog on technology or a Gujarati blog on technology?
- What would resistance to the broader Indian economic polity mean? Does it have equal space here, how does this affect readership and following?
- What is the one value you would associate about Indiblogger? In what ways would it distinguish you from other Blogging networks from across the world?
- In this globalised world, where most of the bloggers, would be travelling frequently across the country and outside it: what does the notion of Indianness mean, in the virtual context?
- Is geo-location an integral part of being an Indiblogger?
I would love to have your answers, comments, insights to any or all of these questions. Through it I hope to explore deeper terrains of Indianness in the virtual context, and hopefully find substantive meaning to being Indian.
Waiting in earnestness for a voluminous and substantive thread,
CC
Since you are so caught on to the federal bit: this comes from the Supreme Court of India's website. There are State Acts in India on matters pertaining to State List; popular example being the Rajasthan State RTI Act which was enacted in 2000, about six years before the national Act came into being, which superseded the earlier state Act. Similarly Disaster Management Act is a state specific Act, with National Act as an overarching frame, with state specific acts having to realign themselves. Sometimes, the State Acts are more progressive legislations than Central ones. Ditto for taxation, even local bodies are allowed to levy their own taxes, which is part of federal taxation! Even as common place is Wiki acknowledges this...
But you seem determined...; atleast I have tried!
Well check in trending: had never heard of it before this. Thanks for bringing it up!
Yes, I know the benefits that would flow from citizenship: have been trudging their villages and settlements for more than four years now, and that is exactly what people like us are fighting for! The people from Rajasthan should be counted as refugees from Pakistan, unfortunately for those from Pakistan, that I speak of (including those coming in now), are not been given that status. But I do know closely of other such groups like Tamils from Ceylon, Tibetans from Chinese occupied Tibet, Burmese living in the country and forth: who enjoy a number of benefits from the Indian state because they enjoy refugee status, but not this group!
As for taking action with the coming of the UID, its a language and a discourse people like me contest in the name of political intelligibility, fixing development problem with technology, authentication and authorisation, and using these as means to make aliens certain sets, swathes of people! And facilitating proper action in this case, has only meant threats of deportation, penury, harassment from Intelligence and so forth.
I think the need to peel away our confidence on the benign-ness of the Indian State, our deep-seated comfort with technology fixes, with monolithic religious identity, with our unnecessarily patriotic identities and so forth: and engage more actively with such issues of power, identity and community, plurality and hetrarchy!
Again, I try to understand them better, by speaking to those on the margins, living in the margins, and standing up for those condemned to live in the margins...
Dear Sachin, Thanks for such a wonderful long and extensive response. I really appreciate that you have taken the time to respond to the questions, and all of them!! As for furthering the discussion: federalism is a broad set of principles where powers are shared between the Centre and State (and that is why the Indian Constitution had State/Central/Concurrent lists); and that it isn't a case of all or none: but a case of degrees of federalism. I will be happy to stand corrected, but that is what I have grown up reading.
That minor technical point apart, I cannot follow what is that makes Question 5 irrelevant. What I ask is this, in cases blogs are used as means of resisting against the Indian polity, how do these notions of resistance affect readership. Being respectful to all, even the list of popular social cause-like blogs are rather in-line with the dominant Centrist-Right Wing-Monolithic religion-Unification project of the State kind argument. So, I really feel that blogs have some potential, I do not know how much and of which nature, in spawning a badly needed sub-culture against dominant ideology.
As for equating Indian-ness with the holding of Citizenship I have serious issues, I have been, for example, working closely with one such group of Pakistani Hindu Dalits who have been trapped across the fenced border, wish to return, visas are an issue, renunciation and harassment from Intelligence is common, and whose culture, language and religion spawns the two countries and its many provinces (mostly Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan and Rajasthan and Gujarat and Haryana in India). This work is premised in contesting your equating Indianness with the holding of passport and election cards. On the sides, these people are also not Hindus in the monolithic manner, their names, language and cultural practices cut across many borders.
As for 7, I like your libertarian individuated view point on change, but that is a far more complex matter, than mere evolution. In many cases, it is wringed with desire, dislocation, displacement and oppression.
And why complicate? I thought dialogs were meant to generate insight, atleast in my world we swear by it! So keep it coming, cheers
CC
Hi CC,
Ok, Straight to business:
Federal Govt. is one in which there are two constituition in place. There is a state constituition and there is a constituition at the Central Level. The Citizen is subject to both. For ex., State of California in US allowed Gay Marriages (Law is repealed now, I guess) while if you take a look at State of Texas, it clearly does not. Then NY and Rhode Island recognize Gay marriage but dont perform/allow. So, if a gay couple moves to Arizona, they can be arrested against the appropriate law. Essence is, what holds good for one state, may not hold good for another as US Federal Govt. neither allows nor recognize gay marriages.
Whereas in Republic of India, there is only one constituition governing her citizens, which came into being on 26 January, 1950. Taking an example - Someone living in Delhi can apply for Public Services/Govt. jobs in Karnataka. There is no state which can stop any citizen of this country from applying for job in any state. So, clearly, there is no state level constituition at play. That's the major difference between a Federal and Republic. India is a Union of States, called Republic. Using Federal for India would be incorrect here. We always call the national govt. as Central Govt.
I agree blogs are powerful medium. Trending is something which rightly captures what you are saying. Yes, Indiblogger can certainly be of use in case of Trending. But, per se, Indiblogger is a platform for contributing blogs, not opinions. You have forums for opinions. I agree that social cause blogs are in - line with political thought, though I would say its more of neo-liberal, Centrist and leftist ideology rather than hardline rightwing.
The unique example of the citizenship you have cited had a remedy in contituition till 1955, when there were clauses which were guarding interests of those who opted for Pakistan during partition and wanted to come back to India later. However, Citizenship Act 1955 defined new clauses for citizenship which I just mentioned earlier. Its not just about holding ration card and other cards. The citizenship gets with it political inclusion, right to jobs, fundamental rights and many such benefits. The people you have talked about would fall under Refugee category and if they wish to be Indian citizen, they may do so by getting registered with Indian authorities. Porous borders actually make implementation of the laws dificult. They may chose to stay in India, but they would not be treated equally with Indian citizens. After UID comes into force, the count of such people would become easy, their migration habits will be known and proper action would be facilitated.
Rural-Urban-Intra city migration is more an issue of opportunity and development rather than anything. I would not disagree that it may result in oppression as is happening in some states.
I hope it helps...
Cheers,
Sachin
Continued....
As per Mahatma Gandhi (Who later on championed the cause of Hindi as the National Language):
from the point of view of language before we can call 'our country' our own, it is necessary that there should be born in our hearts a love and respect for our languages .…. One sometimes also hears suggestions that something should be done so that all Indians are able to express themselves to each other in a common language. This is a possibility for the future. Everybody will agree that this language should be Indian in origin. But this step is for the future.
We should begin to be proud of being born Indians and similarly we should also be proud of having been born Gujaratis [Gandhi was writing in Gujarati to a Gujarati audience]. Without such consciousness we shall be neither here nor there … It is necessary for the people of one province to learn the languages of other provinces as well … If we spend only half the effort we do in learning English in the learning of Indian languages, there will be born a new atmosphere in the country and a good measure of progress will be achieved.…. The character of a people is evident in its language….. Those who have to serve their country and do public work will have to find time for their mother tongue.
Courtesy: http://www.languageinindia.com/april2005/earlygandhi1.html
Hindi or any other Indian language could not really become national language. It was always English that was the common bridge between diverse set of people. That is the reason I was able to connect with lot of people with little in common. I would definitely go for an English Blog giving an IPad Review than a Hindi/Gujarati/Any other language blog.
For the point 5, I really could not see how Indiblogger is relevant. Indiblogger is just a medium to meet, not disseminate. If Indiblogger had a magazine or selected some post as a compendium, we could have talked about your arguement. As of now, unless you don't go to a blog, you don't know what the blog is about.
For point 6, value I attach is the same as in Brethren/Fraternity.
For Point No. 7 and 8, Its more question of evolution as an individual. Views are bound to change as one moves from one location to other. Culture, dialects, habits change every 50 Kms in India, let alone another country in the world. People who are rigid and refuse to change would be exception here - would be no difference in their writings and thoughts...
Geo - Location might help in case of Indimeets. But then, every region has one now and no one stops you of being present at more than one place. Its a mutual admiration society independent of limitations such as geography.
I hope I was successful in complicating the matters :)
Cheers,
Sachin
My argument is not yet finished... I accidentally hit the enter button... So please allow me to finish...
That's a over the head kind of discussion going on here... :) Let me just proliferate the commotion ...
I could make sense till point number 1 and 2. For these two points, you may find a solution to the problem if you take a look at who is a citizen in Indian Constitution
Citizen of India (as per Citizenship Act, 1955):
Citizenship can be acquired,
- by birth,
- by Descent
- by registration
- by naturalization
- by incorporation of territory
Now, point 3 and 4 has to do a lot with our history. Before ranting further, India is not a Federal State. It is a Republic State, which essentially means even though we are divided in various states (on linguistic basis), we are connected and governed by a National Government, Language and Constitution. This is quite unlike Federal State, where the constituent states can follow their own constitution.
Just because we could not eliminate the very linguistic basis on which constituent states were divided, I would not dare say that people from different constituent state don't connect and see anything in common. Vernacular and linguistic basis is easy to do as you have already lot in common. That's not a rule. Its a choice. Who you want to be with. There comes the Indian- ness in picture. I have stayed and identified with people who did not speak same language, did not eat the same food I used to have and did not follow same gods as I do. But, still I belonged to them unlike any body who is non-Indian or alien in constituitional language
Thanks Renie for the polite response to Anshul.
Well, Anshul, should you find the question absurd, no point in continuing reading, and in future, please save yourself and others the trouble of having to read through your loquacious response. Completely unwarranted!
As for names, well you haven't at all followed the hang/drift of identity politics, names and the suppression attached to it, or power exercised behind it. As for Pandey in Anshul, means loads in this rather feudal patriarchal and undemocratic hetrarchal world we live in! As for wordpress, a press of words: self publishing at the press of a button: means a lot for people who haven't had any chance/access to expression. Live in Livejournal are hangovers of technological immediacy and the warranting of the wider sharing of personal views.
Unfortunately, some of us neither appreciate the beauty of the medium nor engage responsibly with other political/social relevance attached to it, given our socialisation and world views. Thus, responses like yours...
Anyways, we don't have to all speak in mutually intelligible language, do we? Different strokes for different folks, we need space for all. And that, is the beauty of the medium...
Thanks for your responses Murali and Renie. I think you have captured the essence in succinct ways. However, let me add to the dialogue...
@ Murali: you have discussed the identification with a group of people. In that case, the answer is somewhat tautological because I really wish to know what is the virtual identity of that group! But loved your absenteeism and connection part.
@ Renie: Is there anyone way of getting to these grey area blogs, such that one can start a dialogue with their authors on what makes them Indians? Also, have you ever had a nationality profile of bloggers at Indiblogger?
Nope, never had a nationality profile.. and unfortunately we never tagged any blogs as "grey area blogs" 
but I do remember a few names and email threads. Will dig out links to their profiles for you!
Hey Cryptic, I can answer your IndiBlogger - related questions!
As far as geography is concerned, that doesn't matter. And if you're half or quarter or 10% Indian, that's good enough.
Expats living in India, migrants, etc - sure they can be IndiBloggers. We even have a couple of white people registered here, 'cause they're married to an Indian and therefore feel Indian! We don't have too many blogs in this grey area being submitted to IndiBlogger, but when they are, our mods often ask them to give us more information about themselves so we can make a more informed decision.
Bottom line - if there's a sense of being Indian inside you, and you have an original blog, you're an IndiBlogger.
@ Hydeous: In that case, are non-Indians welcome to join in, or is that a remnant of my imagination that it is meant for the Indian virtual community? Big words: nah! I can zip it into a one liner just as well!
'What does 'Indi' in Indiblogger mean to you?'
Does that help?
As for the heaviness, well, Magali, you could take a pot shot at answering some of the many questions! Just visited your blog, I believe at surface level, you might completely identify with the Indian or India question, but there is a fair amount of travel, name-related multi-lingual etymological roots, and even the constant travel your father undertakes. Aren't there pieces of our selves left there and pieces from there creeping into us, our ideologies and our beliefs? Maybe you can post a blog entry exploring this wider notion of Indian-ness, how much, how, in which ways, by what means, and so forth.
Wow! This is heavy. I guess according to me you have to either be of Indian descent, or a foreigner staying in India since a long time.
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